Introduction

The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of traditional Sayings (logoi) of Jesus.
It is attributed to Didymos Judas Thomas, the "Doubting Thomas" of the
canonical Gospels, and according to many early traditions, the twin brother of
Jesus ("didymos" means "twin" in Greek).

We have two versions of the Gospel of Thomas today. The first was discovered in
the late 1800's among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and consists of fragments of a
Greek version, which has been dated to c. 200. The second is a complete
version, in Coptic, from Codex II of the Nag Hammadi finds. Thomas was probably
first written in Greek (or possibly even Syriac or Aramaic) sometime between
the mid 1st and 2nd centuries.

There has been much speculation on the relationship of Thomas to the canonical
Gospels. Many Sayings in Thomas have parallels with the New Testament Sayings,
especially those found in the synoptic Gospels. This leads many to believe that
Thomas was also based on the so-called "Q" Document, along with Matthew, Luke,
and Mark. Indeed, some have speculated that Thomas may in fact be "Q". Unlike
the synoptic Gospels, and like "Q", the Gospel of Thomas has no narrative
connecting the various Sayings. In form, it is simply a list of 114 Sayings, in
no particular order. Comparison with New Testament parallels show that Thomas
contains either more primitive versions of the Sayings, or developments of more
primitive versions. Either way, Thomas seems to preserve earlier traditions
about Jesus than the New Testament.

Although it is not possible to attribute the Gospel of Thomas to any particular
sect, it is clearly Gnostic in nature. As the preamble indicates, these are
"secret sayings", and are intended to be esoteric in nature. The Sayings are
not intended to be interpreted literally, as their New Testament parallels
often are, but to be interpreted symbolically, as attested by Saying #1. Thus in Saying #114, it
is to be understood that "male" symbolizes the pneumatic (spiritual, or
Gnostic) Christians, and "female" symbolizes the psychic (unenlightened, or
orthodox) Christians, rather than actually referring to males and females.

Of the 114 Sayings in the complete work, and all of the
fragments of the Greek text. Also, the Greek version contains one Saying not
found in the Coptic version, which comes between Sayings 32 and 33 of the
Coptic version. New Testament parallels for all 114 sayings are
provided for easier comparison.